Eugenie enjoyed Winchester. She had been in such a fret to reach Castle Tempus when she had first arrived she had not explored very far. It was good to see a small town, unlike the vast sprawl of London, and the Cathedral was like nothing she had seen before. She knew there were even more magnificent cathedrals in France, but had been so intent on reaching England she hadn't given a thought to them.
The shops were better than she had expected in a provincial city, and she and Arabella were tempted at almost every shop. Eugenie suddenly decided her ball gown needed refurbishing, the silver net overskirt was, she insisted, looking tired. Arabella laughed at her, but helped her choose a different net, still silver, but spangled to look like stars.
'I will help you replace the other,' she said, 'and I will buy you that Norwich shawl we were admiring.'
'Oh, that is generous! Thank you.'
Eugenie had received some money from her uncle, and he assured her that her affairs to do with Beechcotes were being sorted. Luckily much of the money stolen by Tonks had been recovered, but what he had given her had not lasted as long as he obviously expected. She felt guilty. In the throes of having a good deal of money to spend for the first time in her life, she had, she thought, been extravagant, and she hesitated to confess this to the Duke.
The Earl did not arrive until the day of the Assembly, and Eugenie tried to conceal her impatience, and worry that after all he might not come, there might be important matters he had to deal with. But in the middle of the afternoon he arrived. They sat down for dinner, and Arabella chatted about the people she had seen in Winchester, and who were coming to the Assembly.
'That Miss Hamilton will be there,' she said.
'Who do you mean? I don't think I recall anyone of that name.'
'Oh Hugh, how can you have forgotten her? She is that beautiful redhead you admired when we were last here. You said she was the loveliest girl in Hampshire, and you took her driving.'
'Did I?'
'Yes. You said she was lovelier even than Lady Emily.'
Then she must indeed be beautiful, Eugenie thought, and lost some of her pleasure in going to the Assembly.
'Oh yes, I recall her now. It's been a long time,' he excused himself. 'Isn't she betrothed yet?'
'No. I met her mother yesterday and the poor woman is in despair. Natalie has had a dozen offers, some of them very flattering, but the wretched girl has refused to listen to any of them. And she is already twenty, soon she will be on the shelf.'
'I suspect she is waiting for a certain Earl,' the Duke said, and laughed. 'I remember how she tried to make sure she was always near you during the dances.'
'Doesn't she have a brother?' the Earl said, looking embarrassed.
'Yes, Alexander. He's a Major, in the Peninsula now, I believe.'
They went on to talk of other people, friends they expected to meet, but Eugenie did not listen. She knew none of these people. Was the Earl's apparent forgetfulness genuine, or was he attempting to deflect suspicion about his interest in this girl? He was almost thirty. He had a duty to marry and provide himself with an heir. She had no idea about his family, apart from the fact he had no brothers, but there would be cousins, someone who would inherit his title and wealth if he had no son. Then she told herself it was nothing to do with her, and tried to look as though she was interested in the conversation until it was time to set off for the Assembly.
*
She saw the beautiful Miss Hamilton as soon as she entered the room where a country dance was taking place. The redhead was truly lovely. Tall and slender, appearing so fragile that the slightest breeze would whisk her away, she had a heart-shaped face, white skin, but with a tint of pink in her cheeks, brilliant green eyes, a pert, straight little nose, full lips, and hair the colour of mahogany. It wasn't really red at all except when the gleams from the candles made it so.
She was standing near the door, and came across to the Duke's party the moment they entered the room. It seemed to Eugenie that she floated rather than walked, a wide smile showing gleaming small white teeth.
'My darling Duchess!' she exclaimed, seizing Arabella's hands and bending forward so that Arabella could kiss her cheek. 'I was so hoping you would come, and even though Mama said you intended to, I have been on tenterhooks in case something prevented it.' She turned to the Duke. 'And my very favourite Duke! I do hope you will dance with me, and I know it is forward of me to ask, but we danced together last year, and I am sure you are the best dancer in the south of England!'
He laughed, flicked a finger at her cheek, and somehow seemed to shrink back, away from her. 'I'm too old, my dear, but I have brought Hugh Fitzjames, he'll be delighted to dance with you.'
She turned towards Hugh, and gave him a slow smile. 'I do declare I didn't see you, as you were hiding behind the Duke. But I won't insist on you taking his place in case you don't wish to dance with me.'
The Earl smiled.' Of course I will dance with the most beautiful girl in the room. How could I not wish it?'
She gave a trill of laughter, and Arabella took the opportunity to draw Eugenie forward.
'Miss Hamilton, this is our niece, Miss Daubney, who is staying with us.'
The girl turned to smile at Eugenie, and clasped her hand. 'How delightful to meet you, and what a lovely gown. I do like those spangles. My mother told me she had met you. And do call me Natalie. May I call you Eugenie? I'm sure we are going to be great friends.'
Eugenie found she could not help liking the girl. Either she was a very clever actress, or she was a genuinely friendly girl delighted to meet them all. She linked her arm through Eugenie's and drew her apart.
'I want you to meet my brother,' she said. 'He's on furlough after a wound he received in the Peninsula, but it's much better now, he doesn't even limp, and he'll be going back in two weeks, which is a dreadful shame. Here he is. Alexander, this is Miss Daubney, she is staying with my darling Duke and Duchess. She is Arabella's niece, which I find quite unbelievable!'
Her brother was tall, as tall as the Earl, muscular, and with dark red hair, but as good looking as his sister was beautiful. Fleetingly Eugenie wondered if there were any more in the family, and whether they all had such striking looks. Then the music stopped, the dancers left the floor, and Eugenie was being asked for the next dance by Alexander, while the Earl, who had followed them to greet the Hamilton family, led Natalie into the set just forming.
Eugenie did her best to concentrate, but she found herself watching the Earl and his lovely partner, who seemed to be on good terms. Luckily, the movements of the dance meant there could be no sustained conversation, so her lack of attention was, she hoped, not obvious to her own partner. Would the Earl offer for Natalie? How could any man resist her, so lovely and so charming?
When the Earl danced with Eugenie, which she told herself he was bound to do, she was equally distracted. Natalie had been surrounded by would-be partners, but she granted the Earl a second dance, while Alexander, clearly not put off by Eugenie's distraction, asked her for a second, and when he was escorting her back to where Arabella was sitting, astonished her by asking if she would drive out with him on the following day.
*
Eugenie found it difficult to sleep that night. Would the Earl offer for the lovely Natalie? From what Arabella had said earlier, she had already refused several very eligible offers including one from the heir to a dukedom. Was she waiting for one from the Earl? He had certainly appeared attracted to her. Why, she demanded of herself, sitting up and punching the pillows, did it matter to her? If she had ever imagined the Earl would offer for her, she was deluding herself. He was friendly, but then he was to most people. He had never given the slightest indication that he favoured her above the many beautiful girls he met. She was not beautiful. Not like Natalie or Lady Emily. She supposed she was average, not a fright, but not in any way as beautiful as someone like the Earl could expect in a wife. She was sure he had the pick of all the debutantes each year. He had an old title, he was wealthy, and above all he was good looking and amiable. Except, she reminded herself, when angry about anything that threatened his country.
Finally she slept, but her rest was uneasy, and when Jenny brought her chocolate she found it difficult to wake up. At breakfast Arabella chatted about the Assembly, the old friends she had met there, and the new betrothals of girls she knew. Eugenie kept a smile on her face, but for most of the time she was not attending, until Arabella mentioned Alexander Hamilton.
'When are you driving out with him?' she asked.
'I, oh, later today,' Eugenie said, and felt herself blushing as she glanced at the Earl.
'It's a pity he's going back to the Peninsula,' Arabella went on. 'He has a good fortune from a godfather, and is an amiable fellow.'
The Duke laughed. 'Do stop trying to match make, my dear,' he said. 'Eugenie has had far too little time, and met far too few eligible young men, to be thinking of betrothals.'
Arabella smiled at him. 'But Jerome, I knew about you within an hour of meeting you,' she said. 'It might be the same with Eugenie when she meets the right man.'
'Baggage! Let her enjoy just being in England, after the bad time she had while she was trying to reach us.'
Eugenie tried to smile, and admonished herself that she had to try and forget the Earl. He had helped her, rescued her in France, but he would have done that for anyone. Just think, she reminded herself, of the way he had rushed to help the agents he thought might be in danger after George's treachery.
Two hours later she was sitting in Alexander's curricle, drawn by a pair of bay horses, being driven towards the downs. A solemn-faced groom sat primly on the rumble seat. Alexander spoke mainly about the countryside they were passing through, and mentioned that his family home was only a few miles away.
'It is a very old house,' he said. 'Perhaps, one day before I have to go back to Spain, you will visit it and I can tell you its history. It is supposed to be on the site of a monastery, one destroyed by Henry the eighth, and some of the house is reputed to have been the abbot's lodgings.'
'Then it is not a ruin, like Castle Tempus?'
'The remains of that old castle? I don't know why the Duke does not pull it all down. It would improve the prospect of his house.'
'But don't you think it's romantic, to have the remains of a Norman castle in your own estate? I wish I had something like it at Beechcotes.'
'Are you one of these girls, like my sister, who think everything old is enchanting?'
Eugenie laughed. 'Certainly not. I like modern things, if they make life more comfortable, like better carriages, and the sort of new close stove Arabella has installed. But I still enjoy knowing about history, and imagining what life must have been like in past centuries.'
He smiled. 'Perhaps you would not enjoy actually living in those conditions. I imagine they would have been much like the lives of the peasants in Portugal and Spain. They are far worse off than our own people.'
'Tell me about the Peninsula.'
He did, for the rest of the drive. It seemed to Eugenie that the peasants in the Peninsula lived a similar life to many of the country folk she had seen on her journey through France.
As they returned to Winchester Alexander said how much he had enjoyed the drive, and talking with her, and as he had so little time left in England would she drive out with him again tomorrow.
*
When Eugenie reached home it was to find that they had all been invited for dinner at the Hamilton house, so she would get to see this long before she had expected it. The Earl was not present, and she learned he had been away on some private business all day. Had he perhaps been to Lymington, something to do with the captured Frenchmen? He did not return until late that evening, and said nothing about his business. He looked pleased, though, and nodded as if he knew about the invitation to dinner. Had he been with Natalie? Was that why he was looking so satisfied?
On the following day Alexander arrived, to apologise that he would not now be able to drive Eugenie out, and ask her for the day following. Arabella insisted he stayed with them until it was time for them to change ready for the visit. The Earl excused himself and spent his time in the small library, writing. Eugenie was restless. Had he been with Natalie? Had he, even, made her an offer, and if she had accepted, was that the reason for his behaviour? Was he, today, perhaps making plans for a wedding, or a life once he was married? Well, that afternoon she would discover the truth.
When Jenny came to help her dress, she pushed away the gown the maid suggested, and chose instead one of her oldest. What did it matter how she looked? She waved aside Jenny's efforts at arranging her hair in elaborate rolls, took the brush from her and said she wanted it au naturel. Jenny sniffed, and muttered that this was no way to treat a beau.
'A beau? What on earth do you mean? I have no beau!'
Jenny simply smiled, and Eugenie shrugged and went on brushing her hair. What beau did Jenny mean? Why were the servants discussing her affairs? They were impertinent, but she supposed they had little else to amuse them apart from the affairs of the family.
Though she was watching carefully, Eugenie could detect nothing from the manner in which the Earl greeted Natalie. She was even more gushing than she had been at the Assembly, but her manner was the same to everyone. The house, which was in an attractive setting, was larger than Eugenie had expected. It showed no traces of its monastic beginnings, so far as she could see, but Natalie insisted on showing her a particular wall that had a niche which had once held a statue of the Virgin Mary.
'We thought of blocking it,' she said, laughing, 'but it serves as a place to put flowers, and being in a passageway they look very well here. The colours make what could be a dark passage a little more friendly.'
Eugenie admired the arrangement, and Natalie admitted she had done it herself.
'Mama says she has not the patience, and passed the task to me many years ago. I cannot think what she will do when I marry and leave here.'
Eugenie bit back the question. How soon was Natalie expecting to marry? It would not, she decided, be proper to ask, since no announcement had been made.
There were other neighbours at dinner, and Eugenie found herself relegated to a place in the centre of the long side of the table, between two young men, sons of the Rector of the parish, while the Earl partnered Natalie and Alexander took in a widow who lived near by. The talk was of the war, and the prospects of Wellington defeating Napoleon, and of local affairs, primarily the scandal of a runaway match between a Winchester heiress and a master from the school who had, Eugenie learned, no fortune and only his salary.
'They didn't have to go to Gretna,' one of the Rector's sons explained. 'She is of age and her own mistress, so they were wed in London by special licence. But it was a very bad alliance on her part, and he is at least fifteen years older than she is.'
'Oh. Will he be able to continue teaching?' Eugenie asked, not really interested.
'No, but with her fortune why ever should he wish to? I'm looking out for an heiress myself,' he added, and brayed with laughter. 'Then I may not have to take orders, which I do not at all wish to do, but my Papa insists it is the only way to prosper. I would prefer to join the army.'
The army would probably suit him better, Eugenie thought, and wondered what he would be like preaching to a congregation. Fortunately, she was unlikely ever to have to find out.
The moon was full, so they did not have to leave early. Eugenie found herself having to play cards with a quiet girl called Prudence and the brothers she had been seated with at dinner. The Earl, she noted, was sitting on a sofa with Natalie, having declined to join a card table. Almost everyone else was playing, apart from the hostess, who hovered anxiously around the card tables until tea was brought in. Soon afterwards, to Eugenie's relief, it was time to leave. Alexander came to the door with them, reminding Eugenie that she was to drive with him on the following day. She nodded and smiled, but would really have preferred another day to explore Winchester. She had not, she felt, seen nearly enough yet of the Cathedral, and it might be months or years before she was again in the city. They were to go to Castle Tempus on the day following.
*
Alexander had brought the same curricle, but this time it was drawn by a pair of greys. He had, Alexander told her, bred them himself. He intended to breed and sell horses once he had finished with the army.
They drove in a different direction this time, to the north, and Eugenie commented on how Winchester seemed to be in a bowl, with hills all around.
'It is lovely countryside,' he agreed. 'Would you like to live here? Of course, I suppose Somerset is pleasant too, but I have never been there. Mama once went to Bath and found it a rather faded place, where most of the inhabitants were elderly and infirm.'
'I don't recall ever going there before we went to live in Switzerland.'
'Is Switzerland as mountainous and cold as we have been told?'
Were they going to spend the entire drive talking geography? 'It is beautiful in summer.'
'I intend to go there as soon as possible, when we have defeated this monster. France too. But Mama tells me you came through France on your way home. Was it a difficult journey? Were the coaches running as normal?'
'It was tedious.' She did not wish to have to explain to this rather superior young man how she had worked in taverns in order to earn money to pay for her journey, and had walked for most of the way. She wondered whether he had heard of Hugues' part, but decided it was unlikely, as the Earl did not talk of his work there.
They had reached a small village, and Alexander stopped and said he wanted to show Eugenie something. He handed the reins to the groom and then helped her alight.
'There is a house here I am thinking of purchasing,' he said, leading her to the end of the village street. The house he indicated was an exquisite Queen Anne building, set in a small, well-kept park. 'When I marry I do not wish to remain in my family home. It never serves, I hear, for two generations to live together.'
Eugenie muttered some reply. He took her arm and opened the gate into the park.
'The owners are away, so I cannot show you the house, but we have permission to walk in the gardens. Look, here is a magnificent rose garden. Such a shame they are not in bloom, but I hope you will see them soon. Eugenie,' he added, his voice thickening, 'I realise it is far too soon, but you are leaving tomorrow, perhaps to go to your own home in Somerset, and I will be going back to Spain in a few days. It could be months before we meet again. Could you consider marrying me? I fell in love with you the first moment I saw you. I can't expect you to have done the same, but I can give you a pleasant life, and you will come to love me. We could enjoy this house, and go often to London if that is your wish. And spend time at your house if you did not wish to sell it. I could resign from the army, we could be married this summer. Eugenie,' he said as he clasped her hand and tried to draw her closer to him, 'give me hope!'
Why didn't he go down on his knees, she wondered, irritated at the theatricality, then decided he would not wish to soil the pantaloons he was wearing. She smiled at the thought, and he took it as encouragement and pulled her into his arms, trying to kiss her.
'Alexander,' she gasped, her lungs unable to draw in air because of his tight embrace, 'I – oh, do let me go! I can't breathe!'
'Oh, my dear! My adorable Eugenie! I can't help it!'
'You can help it perfectly well,' she said as she pulled away. 'I'm flattered, Alexander, but I do not love you, and never can.'
'Why not?' he asked, and she struggled not to laugh at his mortified expression. She did not believe he really cared for her. It was impossible to fall in love at sight. Wasn't it? What could she say to make this infatuated creature believe he had no hope of ever changing her mind?
'I – I love another,' she said, and thought she sounded like one of the heroines in the farces she'd seen at London theatres. It was ridiculous. Alexander was several years older than she was, but he seemed like a frustrated boy. 'I'm sorry, Alexander, that I cannot return your regard.' Where was the book on etiquette when she needed it? 'Please, can we forget it, and now I think we should go home.'
*